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Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Adjunct faculty members in two divisions of Saint Louis
University have voted overwhelmingly to unionize, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
reported on Monday.

Part-time instructors in the university’s College of
Education and College of Arts and Sciences voted 89 to 28 in favor of forming a
union affiliated with the Service Employees International Union. One hundred
and fifty-six adjuncts were eligible to vote.

Monday, May 23, 2016

Pomona College's faculty has voted to change the criteria for tenure to specifically require candidates to be "attentive to diversity in the student body."

While many colleges and universities encourage faculty members to support diversity efforts, and a few have encouraged tenure candidates to reference such work, Pomona's requirement may go farther in that it applies to all who come up for tenure. The faculty voted overwhelmingly this month to approve the change. At Pomona, the faculty controls the tenure criteria, so the vote is final, although there is a grandfather clause exempting those already in the tenure-review process.

The key changes in how faculty members are evaluated can be seen in this part of the Pomona policy, with bold indicating the additions made this month:

Intellectual leadership at the college includes, most particularly, but not exclusively, good teaching that is attentive to diversity in the student body, meaning competence in all, and excellence in at least one, of these teaching activities as measured by the high standards that prevail at Pomona College:

4.Fostering an inclusive classroom where all students are encouraged to participate in discussions,studios, rehearsals, performances, activities and other course exercises.

Further, the Pomona policy outlining
the preparation of a tenure portfolio by a candidate says that the faculty
members should "specifically address their efforts to create and maintain
an inclusive classroom. This may include describing classroom practices used to
encourage the participation of a diverse student body, or to cultivate an
awareness of differing backgrounds, focuses, and needs among the student body
and broader community. Techniques such as communities of learning and community
partnerships are relevant here, as are the inclusion of scholarly and other
works emerging from the perspectives of underrepresented groups, or any other
classroom practices that support inclusivity and diversity."